Sunday, July 11, 2010

Called to amazing love


I can't get them out of my mind...Ivo, Mariales, Jeni, Irvin, Evelyne, Ruby, Jose, Eddy, Claudia...and so many others. They are in my thoughts all of the time. I just looked at the hundreds of photos that were taken of these sweet friends and the things that we did together in El Salvador.

It seems surreal, and yet it seems as real as the computer I type on now. They live across the ocean, but they are as close as Facebook and my memory. They live such simple lives, unhampered by the gadgets and stuff that often weighs me (and some of you) down. They are on fire for God, some in countries that are not their native land, yet they serve and give out of love for the same God I serve, that you serve.

We are called to love people, to extend our boundaries to encompass another culture, another neighborhood, another family, another person. To love them with the love that is so far beyond ourselves that we would be fools to think it wasn't anything less that Christ that makes it all possible.

That kind of love gives us wild ideas like leaving family for a week to go to a country so different from the one where we live. That kind of love asks us to stop for a man with a flat tire to help him fix it and then bless him with money to feed his humgry child. That kind of love puts muscle and grit behind a sledge hammer to renovate rooms so that expansion can take place for more kids to come to know Jesus.

That kind of love is the kind of love I want to demonstrate...not to get noticed, or to make a new friend, or to feed my need for approval. Oh no, I want my love to be an offering to the only God who deserves praise from this fault-filled sinner saved by His amazing grace. That grace is what feeds my love for others, it sustains me when I need to keep loving. Maybe that's why it's called amazing love, amazing grace.

1 comment:

  1. I remember all of you all the time too. It's just this thing, you know, that I know that even if I don't have you face to face again, there's somewhere else where I'll get to see you and praise together.
    Love you Andrea.

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